1/06/2010 @ 6:00AM

How To Buy An E-Reader

The e-reader market long dominated by Amazon’s Kindle has matured into a mainstream technology with viable competitive brands and a large, but still growing, choice of books and publications available. E-readers were arguably the hot tech gift on most holiday gift lists.

Amazon recently announced that not only was the Kindle the most gifted item ever on
Amazon.com
but that “On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books.” I suspect most people are likely to download a book upon receiving a Kindle to try out their new “toy,” whereas an Amazon gift card to buy a hard copy book is likely to be set aside for later use. And so, I’m reluctant to determine a trend based on a single datum point, but it is interesting. The growth of e-books as a percent of total book sales will be the interesting trend to watch over time.

For a long time Amazon had the e-reader market to itself, with both the Kindle and the larger size Kindle DX launched last year. However, all of this success has spawned competitors.
Sony’s
Reader is a similar device but offers touch-screen capabilities and the ability to play music files. Barnes & Nobles (B&N) has introduced its e-reader, the Nook. Lurking in the wings is
Apple’s
rumored Kindle-killer device that some expect will combine e-reader capability along with e-mail and Web access.

I sense that over time e-readers will fall into two broad categories: single- or mult-purpose devices. The Kindle and Nook appear to be a single-purpose device, simply trying to be the best e-reader devices for books, magazines and newspapers.

The Sony Reader and the Apple device (as rumored) appear to be multi-purpose devices–e-readers, music players and possibly more. With multi-purpose devices you may not get the best e-reader but instead get a pretty good e-reader combined with a pretty good music player. Trying to design a device for multiple purposes inevitably leads to compromises. This is not necessarily bad; it all depends on what you want from your device. Single-purpose devices also represent a compromise in that you now have to carry multiple devices, each one best at what it does.

As with cars, e-readers are basically the same in terms of concept; it’s the extras and options and how well they are executed that determine the “fit” with your needs. To take the car analogy further, take an e-reader out for a “test drive” before buying to see how well you like it.

Without any physical stores, Amazon is at a disadvantage in terms of trying before you buy. The only way to try one is to find someone who has a Kindle and take it for a spin. Fortunately, having had the market all to itself for so long, there are plenty of Kindles out there.

B&N’s approach is especially interesting. It initially squandered its brand as a bookseller and let Amazon create and capture the online book sales channel. Now with the Nook, B&N has squandered its advantage of having both physical and online stores. B&N has not been able to stock Nooks, and the device is only available online with a one-month delivery.

I went to a local B&N store in late November to see the Nook, and all that was available was a cardboard mock-up. Hardly sufficient to make me want one, and if I did, it wouldn’t be until January when it shipped. Flash forward to January and B&N is still “temporarily” out of stock but will take your order for February shipment. The store now indicates they have in-store demo units but it’s not clear if that still means cardboard. Ken Peters recently chronicled his difficulties in buying a Nook, and it seems that B&N is digging the hole deeper rather than working its way out.

Sony has both online sales and physical store locations through third-party retailers such as
Office Depot
. If Apple decides to jump into the mix, you can bet they’ll have their multiple sales channels cranked all the way up.

The e-reader market is hot and is likely to get hotter, especially if Apple jumps in. The technology is great–I’m especially looking forward to not having to lug books around on business trips. My only words of advice: Don’t rely on the hype and advertising, but try one first to find one that best suits your needs. I think you’ll find it to be worth the little extra effort.

Mike Schaffner directs information technologyfor the Valve and Measurement Group of Cameron in Houston and aims to infuse a business-based approach to IT management. He also blogs regularly at Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronymsand you can follow him on Twitter at mikeschaffner.